First fevicol se, then baby doll and aaj dil hai paani
paani, and my sinking heart asked is this Bollywood’s race to the bottom. My
notion of Bollywood as the eternal die hard romantic in Veer Zaara, dil ek
mandir, DDLJ came crashing down. The 1960’s Bollywood classic with the
evergreen number ‘hum tere pyaar me sara alam ko bethe’(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onb3sBz3xV4)
set high standards for the society in terms of lifelong commitment, family
values and a definition of love that meant sacrifice, faith and commitment.
Some fifty years later, the great grandchildren of those once teaching the
virtues of family, now dancing to the tunes of fevicol se makes eternal Bollywood
fans like me wonder, if this is the Hindi film’s race to the bottom. Scantily
dressed, titillating actresses falling in and out of love, like waking up from
a dream and villain like heros, fading away the strong difference that once
existed between the virtuous Bollywood hero and the treacherous villain,
Bollywood surely is setting new standards. And the standards so set are
certainly not the ones to emulate. Until the elegance of Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun, My Name is Khan and Veer Zaara returns, Hollywood and Follywood are the
new favourites.
